not-things modules

Hi,

Would anybody be interested in testing out a new module called “Solim” that I’ve created, and is ready to be beta-tested. Because I noticed that I was often using a combination of modules in my patches to get chord inversions that allowed smooth transitions between the chords in a chord sequence, I decided to take a look at writing a single module dedicated to that functionality. And while developing the Module, I had a couple of additional functional ideas, which resulted in a number of optional expander modules that can be used to modify its behaviour.

Update 2025/02/01: Updated links to Beta release v2.0.0-dev-prerelease-001 and added link to simple demonstration patch on Patchstorage Update 2025/02/10: Updated binaries link to the general release section on github iso specific release version

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Looks interesting, could you possibly post a sample patch with sound to get a idea of how to correctly use these ?

Thank you! I’ve updated the original post with the addition of a link to a patch on Patchstorage that shows some of some very basic usages of the module. I’ve also updated the other links to point to the v2.0.0-dev-prerelease-001 beta release version that I created for it.

Played around with the module a bit myself yesterday, and ended up with this result, utilizing Solim in all three voices that are playing: https://youtube.com/shorts/FgAEwLFBdqQ

I do plan to also create a tutorial video for Solim, but it will take a while to come up with a good tutorial patch, and then record and edit it all :slight_smile:

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Thank you will make it much easier to understand and test :slight_smile:

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Oh, I saw this earlier in a Short from you that popped up in YT, I’ll give it a spin tomorrow!

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Added a new set of modules to the Beta yesterday that allow “variable multi polyphonic to polyphonic conversion” signal processing: the Polyphonic Input (P-I) and Polyphonic Output (P-O) modules

Reasoning behind the creation of the modules: I’m working on another module right now where it would be handy to be able to distribute the channels of one or more polyphonic inputs over a different combination of monophonic or polyphonic outputs. For the Solim module above, this could also be handy when it is processing multiple inputs, and you want to have multiple polyphonic signals to modulate different CV inputs. While this is possible by chaining multiple merge & split modules, each merge module only having one polyphonic output means you’ll end up needing a lot of them if there are multiple targets you want to modulate/control. I had a look through the VCV Rack library, but I didn’t immediately see another merge/split module (with a relatively limited footprint) that matched what I was looking for (although there are a LOT of modules that are tagged with “Polyphonic”, so I stopped looking after about 10 pages).

So I decided to create my own interpretation of this functionality: the Pi-Po set of modules:

On the Polyphonic Input module, you connect your monophonic or polyphonic inputs (a LED display shows how many channels there are). All input channels end up in a single “pool” of input values, and when you place a Polyphonic Output module to the right of the input module, you can redistribute those channels over the different outputs, with a dial next to each output port specifying how many channels should be assigned to it. If more inputs are needed, an additional P-I module can be added to the left, and adding an additional P-O module to the right will add additional outputs (modules are processed from the middle outwards, so inputs from right to left and outputs from left to right)

The modules can be found on GitHub at: https://github.com/not-things-modular/not-things-vcv

The full documentation for the Pi-Po modules can be found at: https://github.com/not-things-modular/not-things-vcv/blob/main/doc/PIPO.md

And their binaries are part of the latest beta version (v2.0.0-dev-prerelease-002), as built by GitHub at https://github.com/not-things-modular/not-things-vcv/releases

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The official v2.0.0 build of the Solim and Pi-Po modules are now available in the VCV Rack library: https://library.vcvrack.com/not-things

And since a video says more than a written manual, I also create a patch-from-scratch tutorial that demonstrates some ways to the different modules and expanders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFnPbz3OmdE

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Great work, great demo! Congrats on the release in the library, looking forward to playing with these…

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Thanks Lars!

P-I and P-O are an interesting take on providing flexible polyphonic merge, split, and channel routing capabilities. They largely overlap with Venom Multi Merge and Multi Split, but with an entirely different interface and workflow.

Yes, reading through the manual, I see some familiar concepts in there :slight_smile: I like the approach of drawing the red lines to show the flow of the voltages!

I did look through the first five or so pages on the VCV Library with the “Polyphonic” tag selected (there’s a lot of modules with that tag though…), but I didn’t check manual pages to see if there were additional menu settings to control the flow, I just looked if there were additional controls on the UI, and didn’t immediately find one that did what I was looking for. I wrote Pi-Po mainly because I’m currently working on a sequencer with 8 polyphonic outputs, where it will be possible to freely configure what the different channels on the different ports represent and contain. So in a really complex sequence, you might end up with 128 total channels that might have to be distributed in different ways across different polyphonic signals. Which is why I made the output part (and subsequently also the input part) chainable to allow for as many outputs (and inputs) as needed in one chain of modules.

Started based on a module idea that was brought up on Discord, a new module is now available as part of the not-things plugin: the Polyphonic Same and Different (P-SD) module.

psd-light

It accepts two polyphonic input signals, compare the voltages on their channels, and will send them to three outputs:

  • An output that will contain the voltages that only appear in the first input (A-B)
  • An output that will contain the voltages that appear in both inputs (A&B)
  • An output that will contain the voltages that only appear in the second input (B-A)

A tolerance knob (0-1V) can be used to specify how much two voltages are allowed to differ while still being considered “equal”

A switch allows the operational mode to be specified:

  • Voltage mode: the voltages are compared as-is
  • Note mode: the voltages are compared as 1V/oct values without taking the octave information into account (i.e. only the decimal parts of the voltages are compared)

The module is available in the VCV Rack library: https://library.vcvrack.com/not-things/poly-same-diff

And a full manual is also available: https://github.com/not-things-modular/not-things-vcv/blob/main/doc/PSD.md

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